Hello everybody and Happy Monday! Today I want to talk about the simple pleasures in life. You know, like eating hot buttered toast (especially in hospital following surgery or labour), enjoying a nice cup of tea or coffee, or getting a new mobile phone. You see, this weekend I dragged my husband and the children out for a family visit to the mobile phone store. This was actually quite a big event for us, being rather behind in the advancement of technology. The world is evolving far too fast!

Anyway, I had been nagging at my husband for a long time about his phone. He hadn’t upgraded it for about four years, it was an old model that barely even turned on, much less made and received phone calls. He could not upload apps for social networks, and he wasn’t really bothered about it. He isn’t one for communicating… As it turns out, he now has a reduced monthly cost for his phone, because his usage is so basic. So, thanks to me, he saved money and got a shiny new phone to play with. Ha!

And then there was me. I had waited impatiently for the date from which I could upgrade my phone for free, since the handset I was using had taken a battering, not least thanks to my exuberant children. It was already a replacement, since my toddler smashed the previous phone when she threw it onto a concrete floor. But that’s another story. I wanted a new phone that had more data allowance, was slightly smaller for me to handle, and can manage all the apps that I currently use, and more that I was looking to download.

Yes, I am slightly more savvy than my husband, and I do enjoy new technology. I think the excitement is partly inherited from my dad, who regularly has new cars and phones, among other things. My husband and I are old enough to remember a time without smartphones. We both started out with the old BT Cellnet mobiles, do you remember those? Oh yes, and we were loyal Nokia consumers back in the old days. So now, we find it fascinating to download apps, browse the internet, read hundreds of newspapers and blogs, and do all the other stuff that smartphones allow. And we have all of this technology for what we consider a very reasonable price.

My message for the week is simple: enjoy the little things in life, those activities, habits and daily events that make you smile and give you a warm, fuzzy feeling. Like having a shiny new phone to play with. Embrace the eager inner child, let them play. Have a great week, my friends!